NCAA 2025-2026 Coaching Changes

[blueghost]

its not about money as much as institutional support

I agree that support is huge too.

 

[cftmoonlight79]

John Carney posted on fb that he was back in gymnastics and at Cal.

 

[irichluck21]

John Carney has been named Interim Head Coach.

 

[irichluck21]

 

[GEMINAM]

Huge loss for Cal, just awful.

There's no amount of money in the world that would make me move from Berkley to Clemson. Wretched place.

Why would you say Clemson is wretched? It is an amazing school!

 

[ugadawgkat]

Evidently Snyder and Reihl committed to the coaches and not the school.

 

[blake]

Josh Nilson takes over for Nadalie Walsh at Illinois.

https://fightingillini.com/news/2025/5/20/womens-gymnastics-nilson-named-head-coach-of-illinois-womens-gymnastics.aspx

 

[irichluck21]

Interesting choice at Illinois.

 

[hi_bieja]

I admittedly don’t pay much attention to Clemson sports, but are they really that sports crazy? I know the football team is usually good, but do they care that much about women’s sports?

Two years is not a lot of time to give a coach, especially one that is starting a new program. I’m wondering if they always regretted the hire after all the dirt came out and are using her underwhelming results as an excuse to get of her.

I’m curious to see who they hire. It should be easier to get better candidates now that the program’s established and the facility is built. They could try to lure the Griffeths from LSU. Maybe Taylor Spears? I wonder what Lisa Bowerman at TWU could do with more resources.

Yes, they knew. They were willing to see how it goes and excuse the s**t sandwich if she got results. But she didn't, because she's not a good coach at the end of the day, so that's that.

Have we ever had another situation where a top 10 program had their head coaches bail on them for a fledgling program?

 

[irichluck21]

The results were there. Clemson qualified to regionals both years in existence.
They advanced to the regional semi-final this year.
Both year's results were perfectly acceptable for e fledgling program.

I am not sure how you can expect a 2nd year program to be an immediate contender so soon.

I believe there were several issues at play, and probably Smith's past caught up to her or she didn't change her ways at Clemson.

We will probably never know the full reason.

 

[Kara]

I'm choosing to believe Smith was fired for designing the most god awful leotards ever.

 

[OnoNoKomachi]

California women's gymnastics is not going to be cut unless multiple other teams are cut.

I can 100 % guarantee you that unless the law changes Cal women's gymnastics by itself is not going anywhere. Someone on this board could become the head coach and it would not be cut. In 2011, their coach probably really was worse than several people on this board, and Cal still couldn't successfully kill it off (although they tried).

Even cutting both men's and women's gymnastics will leave Cal out of compliance with Title lX.

Here's the math.

Cal has 30,820 students
Females make up 55.76 % of the student body and 48.75 % of varsity athletes
Males make up 44.24 % of the student body and 51.25 % of varsity athletes.

California is currently complying with Title lX via Prong 2 (history of expansion of women's sports - they added beach volleyball) and Prong 3 (full and affective accommodation of the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.

But...when an institution decides to cut a sport, they are no longer compliant with Prong 2 (cutting is the opposite of expanding) and Prong 3 (because they are creating unmet interest by eliminating a sport). The only Prong left is Prong 1 (substantial proportionality), so unless the institution ends up in a state of "substantial proportionality", they are in violation.

California can't just cut women's sport and call it a day. Not going to happen unless the law changes (which amazingly considering everything else this administration has done isn't even on the radar screen).

California is so far far from substantial proportionality that even cutting both men's and women's gymnastics won't even get them close to where they need to be to be compliant with Title lX.

The women would not have to depend on the Office of Civil Rights (which at this point probably would do nothing), but could go straight to Federal Court and get an injunction to stop the cut. They would succeed, which is why California isn't going to even try.

I just spoke with someone at Cal today, and they are actively interviewing for a men's coach to replace JT Okada. So that isn't going anywhere. Of course it's mostly donor funded so doesn't cost money and there will be a ton of really angry people who have been paying into it for years who will be really mad (not that this stopped them before with men's Rugby)

What could happen - California is in bad financial shape, and House is going to make that a lot worse. Cal also has a large number of varsity sports. The could cut a whole bunch of sports, but which ones go will depend on the position of all the other sports. Gymnastics is a popular one to get rid of because (among other things), they require specialized space and equipment that isn't used for much else but camps. But who knows what they will cut. Predicting that would require detailed knowledge of what's going on with all the other teams. Women's gymnastics gets on TV, and athletic departments like that.

Title lX law could change. I have heard nothing about any attempts now, but once teams start getting the ax because of House, things might change. Or they might not.

If that happens, it's going to be survival of the fittest. Demanding More may not be such a great strategy in the long run.